Unless a skater is blatantly working the system and knowingly falling or what not to get the points (ala Buttle in 2006 on his stupid quad) I don't understand why the skater gets all the blame heaped upon them for winning/scoring high. the judges make that call.

Unless a skater is blatantly working the system and knowingly falling or what not to get the points (ala Buttle in 2006 on his stupid quad) I don't understand why the skater gets all the blame heaped upon them for winning/scoring high. the judges make that call.

Obviously. To quote myself:

Originally Posted by kwanatic

Of course it wasn't Alissa's fault...it's always on the judges.

The skaters don't score themselves but, unfortunately, they do get the blame sometimes even though judges are the ones who hand out the scores.

Yes. That Alissa is such a sweetheart. In my note to her I mentioned that folks on the GS forum were discussing her contributions to figure skating & she acknowledged that in her response:

"Thank you so much for the encouraging message. I'm really grateful for your support, and please tell the others, too, thank you from me."

Thanks for mentioning all of us at GS, meem.
And Czisny in turn is exceedingly gracious to extend her thanks to everyone here.
Her mind must be reeling as to what the future will hold for her, and yet she is putting thought and time into writing personalized replies.
Love her strength and generosity and warmth and classiness.

I honestly think last season when she was training all of those 3lz-3ts is what did it. She started off the season with a very ambitious layout even though the combo and all of the triples never materialized in competition. But she'd been practicing that all summer...

Before the end of the season she had the injury to her toe, right after nationals she started experiencing problems with her labrum...and now she's dislocated her hip.

It's so sad. It really reminds me of what happened to Michelle. She wanted to continue to compete but her body started breaking down...literally. Her hips were literally coming apart! There's only so much wear and tear a body can take and, from all indications, Alissa is approaching or has reached her limit.

I'm glad Michelle stopped when she did, and I hope that Alissa can find a way to move forward without hurting herself more. If she skates noncompetitively in the future, I hope she stays away from the jumps. If she chooses another path, I hope she finds one as satisfying to her as the one Michelle has embarked on.

If you ever had the honor of sitting next to her at an event, you could see she has the fastest thumbs in the west! And she is very gracious so I am not suprised at the response time.
I just miss her artistry and I havent even left for nats yet...
Chris learning to send e-mails with his new tablet and semi smart phones....and who is all thumbs.....

Originally Posted by R.D.

No...but then again, probably because I didn't write to her in the first place.

I have in the past, though...and have gotten a (short) response about a month afterwards. Surprising that you guys got one so quickly. Guess she really does read all her fan mail. That's an admirable trait.

Great news I am still cautiously optimistic because there is a tendency for athletes and those around them to print a rosier picture when it comes to injuries and then I reminded about age and MK :( Regardless Alissa is bright and will have a great future no matter what she chooses to do.

Math, what an inspired thing to send her. I think that's probably the very best thing she could hear right now: that she will always have a place in U.S. skating history. Good for you! (And it proves that math, in the right context, can be an emotionally sustaining force.)

I must say, although Czisny has done many things in her career that I either didn't like or didn't agree with, her kind is very rare. Not enough athletes / actors / famous people take the time to respond to fans and I have nothing but respect for those that do. You can tell she TRULY appreciates her fans - so many forget that fans even exist. And at least in the music & movie industries, in the end it's the fans who keep you employed - they buy your records or watch your movies.

Yeah she kept going for those combos but couldn't rotate them enough, which is so much pressure on your body when you're trying to hold a landing while your blade grinds through the ice like that...

So what you're saying, which makes sense, is that the weaker your technique is, the more likely you are to have certain injuries. If there were ever a reason for coaches of very young skaters to insist on good technique, this is it. A coach may never have the chance to train more than leisure-time skaters, but he/she can't know that. One of those eight-year-olds may turn out to be a champion, with a twenty-year skating career, and it's the first coach's job to teach technique that (as far as can be helped) won't tear the skater's body apart.